Trump vows to continue presidential campaign even if sentenced

Former US president Donald Trump said he would not end his run for the White House if he were convicted and sentenced in any of the criminal investigations mounting against him.

The 77-year-old Republican frontrunner was asked about his reaction to the federal and state charges he faces as he bids for a second term in 2024, a day after federal prosecutors added three felony counts to the indictment against him over his handling of classified documents.

Asked by right-wing radio host John Fredericks on Friday that if being sentenced would stop his campaign, he quickly responded: "Not at all. There's nothing in the Constitution to say that it could."

"And even the radical left crazies are saying not at all, that wouldn't stop (me) — and it wouldn't stop me either. These people are sick. What they are doing is absolutely horrible," he added.

Trump said previous presidents including Barack Obama and George W. Bush "took documents," suggesting falsely that his predecessors had engaged in conduct similar to the alleged crimes for which he has been charged.

"Nobody has ever gone through this. This is crazy," he added, mischaracterising the law and a previous civil dispute over presidential documents to argue that he had done nothing wrong.

New criminal counts

US Special Counsel Jack Smith filed three new criminal counts against Trump on Thursday, bringing the total count to 40, and charged a maintenance worker at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, Carlos De Oliveira, with conspiracy to obstruct justice, accusing him of helping Trump to hide documents.

De Oliveira, 56, told another worker at the resort where Trump lives that "the boss" wanted security videos of the property in Florida deleted after the Justice Department subpoenaed them.

Prosecutors also charged De Oliveira with lying to the FBI during a voluntary interview, falsely claiming he had no involvement in moving boxes of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

The twice-impeached former president was first indicted in the classified documents case last month, accused of endangering national security by holding on to top secret nuclear and defence information after leaving the White House.

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Source: TRT